New ratings technology may shake up Jacksonville radio

WOKV (690 AM and 106.5 FM) has been dominating the Jacksonville radio ratings in recent years with its news and conservative talk show format. But that could change drastically a year from now.

No, we're not predicting a change in the local political landscape with the 2010 mid-term elections. But there will be a big change in the way Arbitron Inc., the company that compiles the most-used ratings numbers, collects the data in the fall of 2010. Instead of relying on a panel of radio listeners to write and submit diaries listing the stations they tune to, Arbitron will begin using a device called the Portable People Meter that captures the stations panelists listen to electronically.

The introduction of the Portable People Meter, or PPM, has shaken up the ratings in some markets where it's already used. The PPM can produce very different results than a diary.

"The difference is you're measuring behavior. You're not measuring someone's memory. The people meter is an attempt to measure actual consumer behavior," said Tom Taylor, editor of a daily industry newsletter at Radio-Info.com.

Under the PPM system, all radio stations in the market are given encoders that are embedded into their signals. When the PPM is in listening range of a device that is broadcasting a particular station, it picks up that hidden code and records it. Arbitron says that any station that can be heard by the person carrying the mobile phone-sized device will be picked up by the PPM.

The panelists are required to carry the PPM around with them all day (and they are compensated an undisclosed amount, just as diary users are). At the end of the day, the user puts the PPM into a base station that transmits the data to Arbitron.

Under the current method of generating ratings data, listeners write down the stations and times they listened into a diary that is submitted to Arbitron at the end of the week. But generally, it's not as accurate as the PPM.

"The meter picks up an awful lot of listening that you didn't remember," said Mark O'Neill, a partner in consulting firm ROI Media Solutions.

It's not just that people are forgetful when they fill out the diaries. They sometimes might not even realize they're listening to a station. Say you're standing in line at a deli at lunchtime with music playing in the background. If that music is coming from a radio station, the PPM would pick up that you're listening to it, even if you didn't know you were exposed to that station.

Arbitron slowly has been rolling out the PPMs in the 50 largest U.S. radio markets, starting with Philadelphia in early 2007. Jacksonville, the 46th largest market, is in the last group of cities that will begin using the device in the fall of 2010.

Arbitron tested the technology for 15 years before it began publishing ratings data based on the PPM, so the company is very confident about its accuracy. But the PPM does have its critics. Arbitron uses a much smaller panel to collect its PPM data than it uses with diaries, and it has received complaints that minorities are underrepresented in the panels.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum filed a lawsuit in July seeking to block Arbitron's first release of PPM data for the Miami market. It alleges that Arbitron did not recruit enough minorities in the panel, so stations that are targeted to minority listeners would be hurt by the PPM data. The lawsuit is still pending, but it did not stop Arbitron from issuing its Miami PPM data.

"Our office examined the issue because it was important to ensuring a competitive market in our state for all radio broadcasters, including minority radio stations," said Ryan Wiggins, a spokeswoman for McCollum, in an e-mailed response to questions about the case.

Wiggins said the attorney general is not seeking to stop the use of PPMs, but to improve the sampling method.

Arbitron said it has taken steps to improve the demographic representation of the panel. And although the PPM uses a smaller total sample size, Arbitron spokeswoman Jessica Benbow said the PPM actually results in data from more people at one time.

Under the diary system currently in use in Jacksonville, 2,096 people are submitting a one-week diary over a 12-week period, she said. That means that only 174 are submitting diary information for any given week.

When the PPM is introduced next year, it will have 700 users who will be submitting data every day.

"They have the opportunity to be in the panel every day and every week," said Benbow. "With PPM, you have a lot more sample to pull from."

So what can we expect to see when the PPM goes live in Jacksonville a year from now?

"Generally, the radio audience is bigger than the diary showed," said Taylor. "The flip side is they don't listen as long."

As for which stations will benefit and which will be hurt by the new system, it's hard to say.

"Every market is distinct," said Charlie Sislen, a partner at radio consulting firm Research Director Inc.

"Real listening has not changed at all. All that's changed is how it's being judged by Arbitron," he said.

"A lot of things that would have happened [in the ratings] if we had not changed to PPM are blamed on PPM," said O'Neill.

Will WOKV, which has been the top-rated station in the Jacksonville market for several years, be able to keep its spot?

David Isreal, general manager of two other Jacksonville stations owned by Cox Radio Inc., isn't worried about Cox-owned WOKV. He said another news/talk station owned by Cox, WSB in Atlanta, was not hurt by the new technology.

"We've seen that radio station maintain its strength in the PPM," he said.

"News/talk is one of those formats, as a general rule, that does not suffer in PPM," Isreal said.

mark.basch@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4308

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